School is coming to an end and Ms. Lavieri’s Ceramics final has begun. In this final students will first plan their vision, create their ceramic piece, and finally install it in their preferred spot on the school campus.

With this assignment, students can demonstrate their skills and knowledge in each of their ceramic pieces for the school to observe. Each piece should have a reason for why they were placed there, it should be able to blend within the environment or bring new perspectives to the place.

It needs to have meaning, courage, understanding, curiosity, humor, playfulness, willingness, conviction, generosity, complexity, simplicity, tradition, or regard for Elements of Design. Although the design could be fun, ridiculous, or symbolic, its goal is to bring reactions/emotions to the viewer by incorporating interesting art into average places.

This project will be done individually or in a group of 1-4 members, members will be able to use all supplies provided in the ceramics room and have the creative freedom to build their vision.

Ms. Laveiri chose this as the final because she states “I thought it would be a fun and different way to wrap up the year and it will show off to the school what the students have learned”, she also hopes “Students realize there are many ways to be creative and how fun it is to work with clay” and how students should “be aware that objects exist in context and where a thing is placed affects how it is perceived.“

Many students choose to create unique-looking pieces, such as these students:

Senior Briseida Lopez created the characters Tangela, a grass-type Pokemon with blue vines covering its face, and Ditto, a normal-type Pokemon with a purple slim-like form. She chose to do these characters because to her “it seemed like easy characters to create and they are very recognizable”

She plans on placing it somewhere around the agriculture area. She wishes that people will enjoy seeing these characters as they are small, cute, and seem like they came right out of the anime. 

Sophomore Alexander Siapkaris created three soldiers, each from a different region of a fictional world laughing and chatting after they have stopped fighting. He plans to place his piece somewhere in the Agriculture area, which resembles an ancient structure.

The story behind his piece is “I was inspired, believe it or not, by a Minecraft server me and my friends played on for a long time. In this server, we had created nations in different regions of the world and we were constantly fighting. It got so bad that our friendships became strained, and the server eventually died out due to inactivity after me and one of my friends harassed two of my other friends out of the server. However, after the server and the fighting ended, we mended our relationships and we now talk and laugh about the absurdity of it all these days.“

He states the reaction he hopes to get from people is “Genuine and thoughtful…I have told you what these warriors who chose peace mean to me, it’s up to others what they mean to them.“

Junior Emily Torres-Berganza created a four-legged standing fish, her inspiration was the concept of affliction. It will be placed in the agriculture area where it will seem as though the fish will dive into the pond.

According to Torrez, this is her fish. Milton’s story “He was cursed with these legs and is then regarded among fish society as a pariah. Rejected by family and strangers, he, and what he could have been or done or contributed to the world, is forever overshadowed by his awful legs. He’s regarded as a monster, a freak of nature… Or something like that.”

She hopes that although her fish represents suffering, it will bring joy or laughter to people who see it, or recognize its uniqueness.

More examples of student pieces:

The deadline to finalize the work is on May 19, students will either glaze or paint their pieces, and work will start to be displayed on Wednesday, May 31.

The goal of public art is to reveal and add meaning to our communities, not only is it visually appealing but it brings joy to others, when work is displayed the ceramics students hope their work and skills will be able to be appreciated.